HOUSTON -- Houston police crashed a Christmas party for high-priced call girls and their customers last week at a Midtown club called Element.
Tuesday night, police were back out rounding up the men who allegedly paid for sex at the party.
"This is a party that was organized on a Web site that caters to mainly prostitution," said Lt. C. Vasquez with HPD’s vice division.
Members of the site called ASPD.net chat about Houston escorts and even write reviews. Warnings are posted about police activity, and which escorts can be trusted.
Members must be invited to join, and then a check is done to verify their employment. Operators wanted to make sure no cops were allowed.
But undercover HPD vice officers infiltrated the site and became members.
"It took about four months to get in there, from beginning to end," Vasquez said.
At the party, HPD undercover officers found enough evidence to charge 12 people with prostitution.
As soon as the arrests happened, members of aspd.net began to chat about the raid.
They even posted a warning about tonight’s story on 11 News at 10.
"Prostitution is in the virtual world now and if we are going to do our job and enforce the prostitution laws, we are going to have to move into the virtual world too," Vasquez said. "And that’s what we have done."
HPD’s Vice Division is using the site to gather information. Since last week’s raid it has been conducting prostitution stings at hotels and motels all over Houston.
HPD says it has collected names, and will be making more arrests soon.
"There are men who met prostitutes online in the city of Houston who have warrants for their arrest for prostitution, and they don’t know it yet.
They will soon.
